Inside Health

IN THE REGION/Long Island; Using Housing to Attract Nurses

By VALERIE COTSALAS

Published: July 17, 2005

WHEN Sheena Mathew moved to Oceanside last year from her home in Kerala, India, she had a good job waiting for her at South Nassau Communities Hospital as a registered nurse.

But as she searched for an apartment to share with her husband, who would arrive from Kerala a month later, she was shocked at the prices.

''It was terrible,'' Ms. Mathew said. ''It's very expensive. We just wanted a place that would be easily accessible to the hospital, near a bus route, and that would be affordable.''

In the last four years, the hospital recruited Ms. Mathew, 26, along with 60 other foreign nurses to fill open positions. Since 1997, South Nassau has expanded to 10 separate medical facilities in neighboring communities in addition to the main hospital. A nationwide nursing shortage had left the hospital projecting in 2001 that 18 percent of its positions would be unfilled over the next three years.

Since then, Yvette Mooney, a senior vice president and head of South Nassau's recruiting program for nurses, has filled the shortfall with both local and international nurses, primarily from the Philippines, India and China, she said.

New nurses stay for up to three months in hospital-owned houses or rented apartments on nearby residential streets. A person on the hospital's staff assists the nurses in finding their own homes.

At first, to handle the deluge of foreign nurses, the hospital contracted with nearby apartment buildings to lease units and then transfer them to the nurses, advancing them the security payment until the nurses could pay the hospital back.

Now, going even further, the hospital is building a 22-unit housing complex less than a block away on donated land.

The 900-square-foot apartments will have two bedrooms, one and a half baths, central air-conditioning, an eat-in kitchen and a combination living and dining room. Two nurses or a single family (a majority of recruited nurses have children) will live in the apartments on a limited basis for a total monthly rent of about $1,800.

Many Long Island hospitals have had to look outside the United States for nursing staff in recent years, but once nurses arrive, high real estate prices make it hard for them to find homes they can afford.

Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip recently recruited 120 nurses from the Philippines, Dubai and Bangalore, who will be joining the hospital over the next two years, according to Lori Spina, vice president of human resources at the hospital. The nurses stay in hotels and are provided transportation for their first 30 days, Ms. Spina reported, and the hospital also helps the nurses find places to live.

The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, based in Manhasset, the largest Long Island medical institution, owns 276 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. Most are used by medical residents, who earn far less than the attending physicians who teach them, according to a spokesman, Terry Lynam.

Though the highly rated North Shore-L.I.J. has little trouble filling nursing positions, Mr. Lynam said, ''when you try to recruit nurses from outside of the area, the cost of living, especially housing, is always a major issue.''

Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola owns two apartment buildings opposite the hospital and private homes within two blocks for medical residents with families. When the demand outnumbers supply, a spokesman, John Brody, said, the hospital leases apartments for residents, who pay subsidized rents.

At South Nassau, Ms. Mathew went with a hospital employee every day after work for a month to search for an apartment. She finally found a one-bedroom in Freeport for $1,250 a month.

It is within walking distance of a mall, she said, and of a bus route that runs by the hospital. ''I'm not settled in exactly,'' Ms. Mathew said recently, ''but I can concentrate more now on the clinical side.''

At base salaries of $56,275 to $72,024, based on experience and education (all foreign nurses have at least a bachelor's degree, Ms. Mooney said, and many have master's degrees), the pay may seem highly attractive to the nurses when they hear about it in their home countries.

Ms. Mooney said she tries to explain to recruits about the high costs of Long Island before she hires them, but ''when they come here and they see how much things cost, they're shocked.''

Junaly Dumadapat, 29, another registered nurse at South Nassau, arrived in Oceanside in late May. She now lives in a hospital-owned three-bedroom home that she shares with two other recruits, one from Ms. Dumadapat's home country, the Philippines, and another from Korea.

Ms. Dumadapat is hoping she can get a three-month extension for the furnished housing, where she pays $400 monthly in rent.

''I have looked around already and for a one-bedroom it's at least $1,250 and you have to take a 30-minute bus ride,'' she said, discussing her search in nearby Long Beach. ''And you have to buy your own furniture.''

Sheena Mathew had to ask relatives back home for help just to get in the door of her Freeport apartment.

''We are new to this place; we don't have credit,'' she said. ''They ask for two months' security and one month's rent. And you can't give a check; you have to give cash.''

The hospital tries to help recruits navigate the housing rules on Long Island and understand other myriad costs, like owning and insuring a car, getting cable television and high-speed Internet access and paying for utilities, Ms. Mooney said.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, many of the nurses' visas were held up in new immigration controls. It wasn't until 2003 that, suddenly, the hospital was notified that many of the new recruits had been cleared for entry into the United States.

''We have no control over immigration, so all of a sudden we could receive notice that nurses are allowed to travel,'' Ms. Mooney said. ''That gives us about 30 days to prepare.''

The new housing complex, when it is built, will make that preparation easier. ''The housing is a huge perk here,'' Ms. Mooney said of the complex, which is expected to be completed next summer. If the hospital did not help the nurses with housing, she added, ''there are enough hospitals in every area of New York State that are crying for nurses that we wouldn't get them to come here.''

Photos: NEW RECRUITS -- Sheena Mathew and Junaly Dumadapat at South Nassau Communities Hospital, which is building a complex of two-bedroom units, below. (Photos by Vic DeLucia for The New York Times, above; DeGiaimo Group Architects, below)